He says he has wanted to work in the TV industry for a long time. Now Matt Brittin will become director and editor-in-chief of the BBC. The former Google director succeeds director Tim Davie, who announced his departure in November after the commotion that arose over an editing choice in a documentary about American President Donald Trump.
Brittin, 57, worked at Google for almost twenty years, where he headed the Europe, Middle East and Africa department until the end of 2024. In 2025, he joined the board of Guardian Media Group. Brittin has no journalistic experience, but gets a deputy director who does. This is considered necessary, because discussions about the BBC’s journalistic choices usually quickly focus on the top of the broadcaster.
BBC chairman Samir Shah expects that Brittin, with his experience in big tech, is suitable to guide the broadcaster through “changes in the media landscape”. An example of this is the BBC’s recent decision to create series that will first appear on YouTube. Brittin believes that technology, the rise of AI in particular, can fuel creativity.
Doctor Who
Television has had a great influence on his life, Brittin said in a 2025 speech on his acceptance of a fellowship of the Royal Television Society. Especially the series Doctor Who had shaped him, he said, by what he learned about science and technology from it. The series inspired him and many other people in the tech world to do the right thing, he also said.
Brittin was an Olympic rower, and initially chose a job that could finance this: the real estate profession. He later attended London Business School, graduating in 1997, became a consultant at McKenzie and later worked at publisher Trinity Mirror. In 2007 he started working at Google.
Exciting times ahead for the BBC: the broadcasting license, which must be renewed every ten years, expires at the end of 2027. Negotiations for its continuation are now underway. British Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said earlier this month that she wants to grant the broadcaster a permanent license to protect the organization from a “culture war”. The radical right party Reform UK, which is doing well in the polls, is particularly critical of the BBC.
Nandy wants to prevent the BBC from ceasing to exist with a permanent license, because “we wouldn’t accept that for the NHS, and we shouldn’t accept that when it comes to the BBC,” she said in a speech in London, referring to the National Health Service, the British healthcare system.
The case surrounding the Trump documentary has not yet been concluded. The president is demanding billions from the broadcaster because he is said to have suffered electoral damage due to the controversial editing choice. The BBC last week asked the court concerned to dismiss the case because the documentary was never broadcast in the US.
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